Goodbye
by Araine
Summary: In the moments of his death, Yondaime Hokage reflects back on the son he never knew and the nameless woman he loved. Oneshot, Flash Fiction, Drabbleish.


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto - the show belongs to Masashi Kishimoto-sama, Shonen Jump, and whoever else owns it.

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_I guess this is the end, then…_

I should have figured, by the time she showed up and bequeathed me care for her illegitimate child, that my career as Yondaime Hokage was over. After all, that squirming, golden-haired ball of flesh with the bright blue eyes was half my responsibility. 

_But oh, was she ever beautiful…_

It was some time after I had been inducted as the Yondaime Hokage that I went venturing throughout the Country of Fire. It was supposedly under the pretense of surveying the land I had to protect, or at least that's what the Daimyo heard. To anyone who knew me, however, such a thing was a joke - after all, I had traveled all over the Country of Fire many times before. I was leaving because the tedious office work was boring me. 

The woman who I would come to call the one I loved I met in one of the villages I visited. She stood in a dirt yard and practiced her shuriken throwing as I watched. She noticed me, but it wasn't as though I were trying to hide - and she didn't seem to mind my watching.

**"What's your name?" **she asked me when she had exhausted her supply of shuriken and strode forward to grab the projectiles from the target.

I told her. 

She smirked. **"The Hokage?"** she asked.

**"You caught me,"** I said, my amusement apparent in my voice.

**"I didn't know you were in town,"** she said, her voice just as amused at mine. **"Why are you visiting our humble village?"**

**"Only to see one as beautiful as yourself, surely,"** I teased. I admit, I was something of a flirt. Years of being Jiraiya-sama's apprentice can do that to a person.

She laughed, her laugh mystical and beautiful and utterly captivating. **"Well, Hokage-sama, what would you say to giving a lowly kunoichi a little spar?"**

I knew I should be getting along, so I humbly declined her request, giving a bit of a sad smile. 

**"Loser buys drinks,"** she called to my retreating back, and I stopped where I was. I had indulged in alcohol before, and found that I liked it, though it was not a good idea, what with my responsibility to the village. Of course, I was in a way taking time off.

I turned, and easily hopped the fence. 

**"Showoff,"** she teased.

I grinned, and we began our spar. It was rather uneventful, seeing as we had agreed upon using no jutsu. I ended up winning - after all, I'm not the Yondaime Hokage for nothing. We arrived at the bar, laughing and talking. I felt like I could spend my entire life with this woman. 

The bar was crowded, but after we'd received our first round of drinks and downed them and she announced (rather loudly) that I was the Hokage and visiting their town, that became a good thing. Many people offered us drinks, and though we were both using our chakra to cycle the alcohol from our systems we were both quite drunk.

I suppose it should have been no surprise we ended up back at her hotel room, kissing like there was no tomorrow. After all, she was beautiful, and in my drunken state she was the most beautiful woman I had ever set eyes on, her dark blonde hair falling nearly to her waist and her eyes a dark shade of green.

_I never dreamed_ he _would come from that night…_

I had to leave in the morning - the business was somehow urgent enough the call me away from something so wonderful as that bed we had shared. My metabolism had taken care of most of the hangover, I knew, but I still felt like I had one. 

_If only I'd known her better…_

I returned weeks later to that same village, to find that she had left, and that no one knew where she had gone. Not that I had much to go on - I'd never been told her name. I gave up finding her again and resumed more pressing duties - such as being Hokage. 

It was as Hokage that I saw her for the second and last time. She looked worn from years of harsh living and the strains of pregnancy, but her eyes were still the same dark shade of green. Both she and I had aged beyond the two years we had been apart, but that made no difference.

She brought me the boy I hadn't known of, the boy I didn't know was my son, until she told me. She told me that to take care of him, for living where she lived was harsh. I pleaded with her to stay, but she told me she already had a daughter, who needed caring for.

I asked her only what she named the boy before watching her leave, knowing that even if she had promised him she would return that I would never see her again.

I was right. After all, that was barely a week ago. It seems a fate of tragedy that the day I was to announce that the boy was my son was the day the Kyuubi attacked. After days of battle and the deaths of many good comrades, I had made my final decision.

_Goodbye, my love…_

After all, the technique would take my life. Perhaps his mother would return, perhaps she would care for him - for all that he was now condemned as a monster. 

_Perhaps he won't lead a life of misery…_

_Perhaps he'll grow to be as strong as I am…._

_Perhaps he will become Hokage one day…_

_I'm sorry…_

_Uzumaki Naruto…_

_My son…_

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**Authors Notes: **Like this hasn't been done 3 billion-million times before? Still, I felt like posting it, because, well... I felt like it. It does qualify as Flash-Fiction, if not an actual drabble, as it's just under 1000 words. _  
_


End file.
